Story highlights

She remembers being sent back to work the day the building fell, after spotting cracks

Her mother traveled 170 miles to find Reshma's remains; now "my heart is bursting with joy"

"Save me!" a man's voice cries out in the darkness. "Please save me!"

"I can't see you," she replies. "I don't know where you are."

"Save me! Please save me!" the voice pleads again.

"I want to," she says. "But I can't move either."

She loses consciousness.

When she wakes, the voice is gone.

In that cramped, dark grave under 700 tons of concrete and steel, she is all alone.

****

The concept of purgatory isn't familiar to most Bangladeshis.

But the way Reshma describes her 17 harrowing days -- buried underground in pitch-black darkness as the voices around her faded away, as sweltering days bled into humid nights, as she questioned whether she was in this world or the next -- it's an apt one.

And Reshma, the fifth child of her mother, Zubaida, always had an independent streak.

When she was little, she preferred rolling a tire down the street with the boys to dressing up dolls with the girls.

As a teen, she surprised her family by marrying a man several years her elder.

She was in love, she told them, and love has no boundaries.

"We accepted him," Zubaida said. "But he wasn't good to her."

He'd tell her that her family hadn't paid enough in dowry. He'd taunt her that he'd take another wife. And, said her mother, he "tortured her."

"We gave as much as we could," she said. "But it wasn't enough."

In June 2010, the couple moved from Dinjapur to Dhaka, the go-to destination for the destitute looking to change their fortunes.

A garment worker himself, the husband persuaded Reshma to join the trade.

The money was good. And he snickered that it'd make up for what her parents weren't paying him, Zubaida said.

In January, he disappeared.

Unable to afford rent on her own, Reshma moved to a tiny room in a house next to the Savar Bazaar bus stop.

Savar, once an undeveloped agricultural patch of land just outside Dhaka, has grown into a chaotic, potholed boomtown, home to a disproportionate number of the country's 4,500 garment factories.

Reshma, a story of survival 12 photos

Reshma, a story of survival12 photos

Reshma, a story of survival – Rescue workers carry Reshma Begum, 19, to safety on Friday, May 10, a day after her discovery alive amid the wreckage of a building that had entombed her since it collapsed on April 24, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At least 1,127 people have been confirmed dead from the garment factory building collapse.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Begum, a young female garment worker at the Rana Plaza building before the disaster, addresses the media at the Savar Combined Military Hospital in Savar area of Dhaka on Monday, May 13.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Throngs of reporters crowd around Begum as she speaks publicly for the first time on May 13 about her ordeal in Dhaka.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Begum is surrounded by media and members of the Bangladeshi military at the hospital where she is recovering in Dhaka on May 13.

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Reshma, a story of survival – A nurse helps Begum through a door as she attends a media conference at the Savar Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on May 13.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Begum rests in her hospital bed as members of the Bangladeshi military stand beside her at the Savar Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on Saturday, May 11.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Begum was found in the factory's basement in a pool of water, according to rescue official Lt. Col. Moazzem Hossain.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Bangladeshi army workers supervise the continued rescue operation using heavy equipment to sift through the rubble on May 10 in Dhaka.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Rescuers workers administer first aid as they carry Begum from the rubble on May 10 in Dhaka.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Begum is pulled alive from the rubble by the rescue workers on May 10, after being buried for 16 days.

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Reshma, a story of survival – Begum recalled that when the collapse of the nine-story building began, she was working on the third floor. She was found in the factory's basement.

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Reshma, a story of survival – The 19-year-old mother vowed to never again work in the country's garment industry, where she was earning the equivalent of $60 a month.

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Photos: Building collapses in Bangladesh 80 photos

Photos: Building collapses in Bangladesh80 photos

Building collapses in Bangladesh – Members of the Bangladesh army pray at the site of the collapsed Rana Plaza in Savar near Dhaka on Tuesday, May 14. The army-led effort to search for bodies has ended nearly three weeks after the nine-story building collapsed. The final death toll stands at 1,127.

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Photos: Building collapses in Bangladesh80 photos

Building collapses in Bangladesh – Relatives of missing garment workers offer prayers in front of the rubble on May 14 in Savar.

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Photos: Building collapses in Bangladesh – A white board at the recovery command center near the disaster is used to track the death toll on Monday, May 13.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Heavy equipment sifts through the rubble of the garment factory building collapse on Sunday, May 12.

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Photos: Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman cries holds a portrait of a missing relative believed to be trapped in the rubble of the Rana Plaza building on Saturday, May 11.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Bangladeshi garment worker Reshma Begum, a seamstress who survived 16 days trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building, rests in Savar Cantonment Hospital on the outskirts of Dhaka on May 11.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Relatives search through a long line of covered decomposing bodies to try to identify their family members on May 11.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers retrieve Reshma from the rubble in Savar, Bangladesh, on Friday, May 10. She got rescue workers' attention by waving an iron rod. She was found in a pool of water, which allowed her to stay alive.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – An injured worker who survived the building collapse is carried by her husband to collect her wages in Savar near Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Wednesday, May 8.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Garment workers who survived the building collapse line up to collect their salaries in Savar on May 8.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Workers continue rescue and recovery operations on Tuesday, May 7, nearly two weeks after the Rana Plaza building's collapse outside Dhaka.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers recover a body from the rubble on May 7.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Relatives place a body in the back of a truck on May 7.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman attempts to identify one of the bodies kept in a schoolyard on May 7.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Members of the Bangladeshi army and firefighters carry the body of a garment worker from the scene of the building collapse in Savar, outside Dhaka, on Sunday, May 5.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman holds a portrait of her missing relative as she sleeps on Saturday, May 4.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Relatives attempt to identify the bodies of loved ones on May 4.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers dig out debris from the Rana Plaza building as Bangladeshi army personnel continue the second phase of a rescue operation using heavy equipment on Friday, May 3.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman reacts on May 3 after identifying a body found in the rubble.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A man stands amid the destruction as rescue and army personnel continue recovery operations on May 3.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman holds up a picture of a missing person believed to be trapped in the rubble on May 3.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A garment worker rescued from the wreckage of the Rana Plaza building lies in a hospital in Dhaka on Thursday, May 2.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman weeps after identifying her daughter's body in the rubble in Savar on May 2.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers move debris as Bangladeshi army personnel continue the second phase of a rescue operation at the site of the collapsed building in Savar on May 2.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman mourns before a mass burial in Dhaka on Wednesday, May 1.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Unidentified bodies from the rubble lie on the ground as people gather for a mass burial in Dhaka on May 1.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Workers dig graves during a mass burial of unidentified garment workers on May 1.

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Photos: Building collapses in Bangladesh80 photos

Building collapses in Bangladesh – Sohel Rana, owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, wears police-issued body armor and a helmet while being escorted to court in Dhaka on Tuesday, April 30. Rana was arrested near the Indian border, and protesters called for him to be hanged.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Bangladeshi troops carry the body of a garment worker out of the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar on April 30.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Clothing with Joe Fresh labels lies in the debris on April 30.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Cranes operated by Bangladeshi army personnel work on Monday, April 29.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Firefighters try to control a blaze that started while they were trying to rescue a woman with heavy equipment on April 29.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Bangladeshi army personnel begin the second phase of the rescue operation using heavy equipment on April 29.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescuers look for survivors on Sunday, April 28. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society says the chances of finding anyone alive in the rubble at this date are remote.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman mourns on April 28 at the site of the building collapse in Savar.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers search for survivors on April 28.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Volunteers sleep before they begin more rescue operations on April 28.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers carry a victim's body recovered from the rubble on April 28.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Clothes lie in the rubble on Saturday, April 27.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – An arrested owner of a garment factory is escorted to an appearance at the court in Dhaka on April 27. Four people were arrested and four others are being questioned by police.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Relatives hold photos of missing and dead workers outside the factory April 27.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Two Bangladeshi women look at a board with notices posted of missing and dead workers on April 27.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Bangladeshi relatives and workers load a body onto a truck on April 27.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – An excavator operated by the Bangladeshi Army removes debris on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Volunteers and rescue workers conduct rescue operations on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers use textile as a slide to move bodies out of the rubble on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers look for trapped garment workers on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers stand on the rubble of the collapsed building on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers search the rubble for victims and survivors on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A rescue worker looks for trapped workers on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Bangladeshi army personnel recover a survivor from rubble on April 26, 48 hours after the collapse.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Volunteers and rescue workers assist in rescue operations on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A physician assists a survivor after he was recovered from the rubble on April 26.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Two bodies clutch each other in the rubble on Thursday, April 25.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – People rescue garment workers on April 25.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A Bangladeshi woman shows a picture of her missing daughter-in-law she believes is trapped in the collapsed building on April 25.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Bangladeshi firefighters cut a hole through concrete during rescue operations on April 25 in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Volunteers and rescue workers work at the scene on April 25.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman appears devastated on April 25 after identifying the body of her husband killed in the building collapse.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Bangladeshi garment workers help evacuate a survivor by using a roll of fabric on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – People rescue garment workers on Wednesday, April 24, after the building caved in, leaving a chaotic mass of broken concrete and twisted metal.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Relatives who lost a brother mourn outside a hospital on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescuers help an injured garment worker to escape from the Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of Dhaka on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Civilians help an injured garment worker on April 24. Work was proceeding slowly to avoid causing further collapse, an official said.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescue workers search for trapped garment workers in the Rana Plaza building on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – An injured Bangladeshi lies on the hospital floor on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – The injured receive treatment at a hospital on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – An injured person rests in a hospital bed on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – People wait anxiously on April 24 while rescuers search for survivors.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescuers help an injured person out of the seventh floor on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Civilians help out in rescue efforts at the collapsed building on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Hundreds watch the rescue operations on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – People search for garment workers trapped under the debris on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescuers help an injured worker on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A body is trapped under the damaged building on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A woman is carried away from the building on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – A rescue worker carries a worker to an ambulance on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Crowds gather around the collapsed building on April 24.

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Building collapses in Bangladesh – Rescuers bring out an injured garment worker from the building's sixth floor.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster 18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Seventeen days after a building collapsed in Savar, Bangladesh, rescuers pull Reshma Begum from the rubble on May 10. More than 1,000 people have died since the nine-story garment factory building fell on April 24.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – An officer of the Italian cruise line Costa Concordia, Manrico Giampedroni, is found 36 hours after the ship ran aground off the Mediterranean island of Giglio on January 13, 2012. He broke his leg as the liner rolled was was found in a half-flooded dining room, suffering from hypothermia.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – A baby, her mother and her grandmother are rescued in eastern Turkey on October 25, 2011, two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 600 people. Dramatic video showed 2-week-old Arza Karaduman being carried from the debris of a multiple-story building.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – More than 9 miles out at sea, a 60-year-old Japanese man is found clinging to the swept-away remnants of his home on March 13, 2011. Hiromitsu Shinkawa was drifting alone for more than two days after a massive Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Anne Vos, 57, is rescued 24 hours after a five-story building where she worked collapsed during an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 22, 2011. She said she thought she was going to die and had called family and friends to say goodbye. She talked to international media while trapped.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – After 69 harrowing days underground and a rescue mission costing up to $20 million, 33 Chilean miners are rescued on October 13, 2010. The mine collapsed on August 5, leaving the workers trapped 2,300 feet beneath the Earth's surface.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Digging through the mud, Chinese soldiers rescue Liu Ma Shendeng from the second story of an apartment building on August 10, 2010. The 52-year-old man was trapped for 60 hours after massive mudslides buried homes and ripped others apart in China's Gansu province. The death toll climbed to more than 1,400.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Nine-year-old Ruben van Assouw is the sole survivor of a plane crash in Tripoli, Libya, on May 14, 2010. His parents and brother are among the 103 people killed.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – A man identified as Evan Muncie, 28, is found in the ruins of a marketplace, his family tells CNN, nearly a month after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010. He suffered from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, but did not appear to have significant crushing injuries, doctors said.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – A 13-year-old girl is found in the Indian Ocean clinging to plane debris after the Yemenia Airways Airbus A310 from France crashed on June 1, 2009. Bahia Bakari was the sole survivor of the crash. She had been flying with her mother.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Naqsha Bibi, 40, is recovered alive from the debris of her collapsed home in Kashmir on December 12, 2005. She reportedly survived on rainwater and rotting food for more than 60 days after an earthquake struck the region on October 8.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Rashida Farooq, a 45-year-old mother of three, is rescued from her home 105 hours after it collapsed in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, on October 12, 2005. The 7.6-magnitude earthquake that hit the country killed 80,000 people.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – A man identified as Jalil, 57, is rescued 13 days after an earthquake in Bam, Iran, on December 26, 2003. He was trapped under a closet and must have had access to water, an Iranian doctor told Reuters.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – After being trapped for more than three days, nine miners are rescued from the Quecreek coal mine in Somerset, Pennsylvania, on July 28, 2002. They were caught in a 4-foot-high chamber 240 feet underground after breaching a wall separating their mine from an older, flooded shaft on July 24.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Genelle Guzman-McMillan is rescued from the debris of the World Trade Center 26 hours after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. She worked on the 64th floor of the north tower and was walking down a stairwell when the building collapsed. Her body was protected in an air pocket.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster18 photos

Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Shiran Franco, a 9-year-old Israeli girl, is rescued on August 21,1999, around 100 hours after a building collapsed on her during an earthquake in Cinarcik, Turkey. Her family had been on vacation. Shiran's twin brother, father and grandparents were found dead, but her mother survived after pulling herself from the building after 30 hours.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Three infants are pulled alive from the crumbled Benito Juarez Hospital seven days after a powerful earthquake hit the Mexican capital on September 19, 1985. With more than 10,000 people killed, the newborns became known as the "miracle babies" of Mexico City.

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Survivors: Stories of hope amid disaster – Sixteen people are rescued 72 days after a Uruguayan Air Force plane crashed in the Andes Mountains on October 13, 1972. They endured frigid temperatures and forced themselves to eat the flesh of dead friends to sustain themselves. A dozen of the 45 passengers on board died in the crash. Others later succumbed to their injuries.

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Photos: Bangladeshis protest building collapse 13 photos

Photos: Bangladeshis protest building collapse13 photos

Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Marching Bangladeshis hold up portraits of relatives missing in the Rana Plaza building collapse on Tuesday, May 14. They're demanding wages for the missing garment workers and the death sentence for the building owner. Rana Plaza collapsed on April 24 in Savar outside Dhaka; the final death toll stands at 1,127.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Family members of missing workers march on May 14. The Bangladeshi army has wrapped up its search for bodies.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Bangladeshi property tycoon Sohel Rana, center, is escorted to the High Court in Dhaka wearing police-issued body armor as protests calling for his prosecution continue, Tuesday, April 30.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Bangladeshis march on April 30, demanding capital punishment for Rana in Savar, Bangladesh, outside the capital, Dhaka.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Garment workers block a street during a protest Monday, April 29.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Bangladeshi garment workers protest in Savar on Saturday, April 27. Four people were arrested and four others are being questioned by police. The building owner has gone into hiding.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Bangladeshi army personnel and police from villagers on Friday, April 26, after protests broke out at the site of a building collapse 48 hours earlier in Savar, outside Dhaka.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Garment workers block a street in Savar, demanding the arrest of the owner of the Rana Plaza building.

Bangladeshis protest building collapse – Firefighters work after protesters set fire to a spinning mill in Gazipur.

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Bangladeshis protest building collapse – A man cleans up a restaurant after protesters broke its windows.

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And Reshma quickly found a job at Rana Plaza, a gargantuan, nine-story, city-block-sized structure that housed shops, a bank and five garment workshops.

The $60 she earned a month was twice the average for garment workers in Bangladesh.

Still, the loss of her husband's additional earnings meant she barely squeaked by.

***

"I have to find a way to chop this off," Reshma thinks.

Her long dark hair is caught under a slab of concrete. Every time she tries to move, large chunks of hair are pulled out of her head.

She feels around in the darkness to see what she can find.

A pair of scissors.

She grabs a handful of hair.

Snip.

She is now free to explore on her hands and knees this dust-choked cocoon.

***

When the first cracks appeared in the exterior walls of Rana Plaza, the news spread among the workers in quick murmurs.

The building was built without the right permits on land that used to be a pond, officials now say. The weak foundation was threatened even further when the owner added four floors to what was once a five-story structure.

Generators hummed on the fourth floor, sometimes so loudly that workers said they could feel the structure vibrate.

But all this was revealed after the fact. After Rana Plaza pancaked on April 24. After it claimed more than 1,100 lives.

On April 23, the owner, Sohel Rana, called in an engineer to inspect the building and appease worker concerns.

The engineer, officials later said, took one look at support pillars on the third floor and was horrified. The fissures were deep -- and many.

The building is unsound, he said. No one should be inside.

Rana dismissed those concerns.

"This building will stand a hundred years," he boasted that day.

The factory owners were relieved. Political unrest in the country has meant frequent general strikes and a backlog of orders for them. They couldn't afford a work stoppage if they intended to keep their foreign clients happy.

The industry generates more than $20 billion a year, making the country the second largest exporter of clothing after China.

So they gave the workers an ultimatum: Miss work, miss pay.

The next morning at work, Reshma and others checked out the cracks. They looked ominous.

"The managers said, 'That's just water damage. Go back to work,' " she said.

She did, taking her spot among the long rows of sewing machines at New Wave Bottoms.

An hour later, the power failed. Then came a loud rumble.

Pillars crashed. Support beams punched through windows. Dust and debris clogged the air.

The ceiling raced toward Reshma. And the floors gave way.

"I fell. And I fell," Reshma said.

Then she blacked out.

***

Reshma crawls across the rubble with the little strength she can muster.

"Water," she tells herself. "I have to find water."

She'd found a little in a bottle soon after the fall.

But how long ago was that?

Hours? Days? Weeks? In this darkness, she can't tell.

The anguished cries around her stopped a long time ago.

The man who'd begged her for help was the last voice.

Darkness. Silence. Desperation.

She drags through the detritus, her clothing ripping to shreds.

She pokes bricks with a rod. One tiny space leads to another. Each an air pocket within the sandwiched structure.

She scavenges for food. The four crackers she'd found in the ruins and rationed carefully are gone.

What she really needs is water.

She eventually finds it.

With cupped palms, she pours it down her parched throat.

"I didn't know if it was rainwater or dirty water or what type of water," she later says. "It didn't matter."

She doesn't know it, but she's in the flooded basement of Rana Plaza.

***

It's 170 miles from Dinajpur to Dhaka, a trek along congested roads that can take up to 10 hours.

Reshma's mother heard of the collapse on TV. But there was no way for her to reach her daughter.

Reshma had sold her mobile phone three days earlier to help pay rent.

Scrounging up what little change she had lying around, Zubeida boarded a bus to the capital.

She checked the morgue and the hospitals.

She showed a picture of Reshma to every rescuer she met. No one had seen her.

For the first few days, she steadfastly held on to hope. Rescuers had been pulling out survivors from the rubble by the dozens each day. More than 2,000 of them in all.

But as the days passed, the number dwindled. And with it died Zubeida's hopes.

She wandered aimlessly around the disaster site.

Strangers brought her rice, offered her an umbrella, consoled her.

"I wanted my daughter's body," she said. "I wanted a leg or an arm or anything that I could take home and bury."

Three minutes without air. Three days without water. Three weeks without food.

That's the survival rule of thumb.

In Reshma's case, circumstances conspired to keep her alive:

The air that seeped into the crevices. The crackers she found. The water she drank.

The complete darkness may have helped too, doctors say.

Without knowing day from night, she couldn't keep track of time. She didn't know officials had determined there was little chance someone could survive past a week under that mountainous pile. She was unaware that the rescue mission had long given way to an operation to recover the dead.

And sometimes, the not knowing keeps one going.

***

"Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar."

What was that? Reshma wonders. She strains to hear.

"Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar."

There it is again, the mellifluous tones of the Muslim call to prayer.